The UK government has said more arrests are being made for illegal working, with Home Office figures showing more than 17,000 people have been arrested since the July 2024 general election – more than double the number recorded in the previous two-year period. Of those arrested, 2,357 people have been deported, according to the Home Office, a 50% increase compared with the number returned between July 2022 and June 2024, reports infohub.kz.
Commenting on those numbers, the border security and asylum minister Anna Turley said it was “the highest levels in British history”. “We’re sending a message that if you think you can come to this country and work illegally and disappear off the books, then our immigration enforcement service will find you [and] will arrest you,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Meanwhile, the Conservative party has pledged to end social housing eligibility for all foreign nationals, saying it would free up almost 230,000 homes for British families. Under the proposals, tenants in England who do not qualify would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.
The plans have been described as “divisive” by Sarah Elliott, the chief executive of housing charity Shelter, who said the policy would “brutally kick people out of their homes, including thousands of families and pensioners who have lived in them for decades”.
Also today, chaos has descended on the Norfolk town of Thetford for a third night in a row as violent anti-immigration protests saw crowds of people attempt to storm a home believed to be housing asylum seekers. Norfolk police said two men in their 40s were arrested last night while some of the asylum seekers had to be escorted from homes as a result of the unrest. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Norfolk chief constable Paul Sanford said officers were “subjected to significant aggression”, with one hit with a rock, one bitten and another spat at.
The government is also under pressure to review the potential early release of two of the men who killed PC Andrew Harper. Det Supt Stuart Blaik, who led the investigation in 2019, told the BBC he was “deeply concerned and appalled” by the prospect and that Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers could be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences.